If You Give A Girl A $20...

So, I haven't been to my local library book sale in about three months. Highly unusual for me but between not having time, not particularly being in the mood to listen to a book, and being perfectly content to listen to podcasts during my drive time there just wasn't any need. And, to be honest, I hadn't been finding things that really tripped my trigger lately so I decided to give it some time.Here's what happens when you've just revamped your book wish list, you haven't been to the library sale in months, and you've got a $20 bill in your pocket. While I'm not necessarily doing very well #ReadingMyOwnDamnBooks, I'm bound and determined not to spend any money on books that aren't already on my list, books that have remained on the list even after I've culled it. These eight were all on that list and came in just under that $20. Because if I've got that much cash, it's a pretty sure bet than I'm going to spend that much! Blood and Beauty I got in hardcover but the rest are all audiobooks.

Every time I pick up a batch of new audiobooks, I spend some moments sitting in the car afterward choosing the book to listen to first. Some poor schmuck sat behind me waiting for I don't know how long today while I was doing that. Sorry buddy!

I chose Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day to listen to first and I am loving it after just a half a disc. Frances McDormand (who starred in the movie adaptation) narrates and she does a terrific job. I was tempted to run a few more errands this afternoon just so I could listen to more!

Which of these have you read? What would you recommend I listen to next?

Library (Book Sale) Loot

I stopped checking out books from the library a few months ago (the nasty fines I had wracked up because I really just couldn't get the books back on time!). But that doesn't mean I can't support the library by going to their quarterly Friends of the Library sale. Never mind that I haven't read a single one of the five books I bought last quarter, yesterday I was off to this quarter's sale. I could easily have picked up 30 or 40 books but it would have been so hard to smuggle in that many books. And I was at least disciplined enough not to buy anything that wasn't already pretty high up on the wish list.

Here's what I found:

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Glory Cloak by Patricia O'Brien
The Lady and The Unicorn by Tracy Cheveliar
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
The English Major by Jim Harrison
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The Well and The Mine by Gin Phillips
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Oh, there were so many more books that wanted to come home with me! But I really couldn't spend any more money with the piles of books I already have to be read. I did justify the whole expedition by buying "Crazy Heart" by Thomas Cobb for The Big Guy. And if I'm lucky, he won't ask what else I bought while I was there!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva of A Striped Armchair and Marg of The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Mailbox Monday and Library Loot - August 24

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Very excited to be joining in on this for the first time. Last week I received in the mail for review: "Night of Flames: A Novel of World War Two" by Douglas W. Jacobson and "Circle of Souls" by Preetham Grandhi. Also in the mail was "Home Front" by Kristen J. Tsetsi which I won from Heather at Age 30+...A Lifetime of Books.
I also hit up the library this week (after paying off a fine that would have bought me a hardcover novel!). I brought home on CD "Death In A Village: A Hamish MacBeth Mystery" by M. C. Beaton, "Netherland" by Joseph O'Neill, "The Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett, and "Bridge of Sighs" by Richard Russo. And I'm very excited to have found "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.

As if all of that weren't enough reading to do, I also bought this week: "The Wednesday Sisters" by Meg Waite Clayton and "My Life In France" by Julia Child with Alex Prud'Homme.


What did you pick up to add to your nighstand?